The Underdog
by Kita Kudai
Summary: Seto cheats on his girlfriend. After she catches him, she runs into a friend who just happens to know Joey Wheeler. Joey tries to help her overcome her broken heart? Will he prevail or will she be so set in her misery that she misses out on life? JoeyxOC
1. Chapter 1: Caught Red Handed!

**Okay, so this is a gift for a friend at her request. Bittersweet, this is for you. **

**I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of its characters.**

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><p>She was crying as she drove. Fat and ugly tears ran down her face. She was just driving – to get away from it all. Her heart throbbed. It felt like a knife to her chest with every sob that escaped her throat. The pain was almost too much for her to bear. Her stupid boyfriend was the reason for her agony and yet she couldn't bring herself to hate him. Angela wanted to hate him so desperately that she could taste it in her mouth. She wanted to be able to yell and scream at him and curse him to Hell a thousand times over for actually doing what he did to her to actually end their relationship. This was no way to break it to her. At the same time, she wanted him back, because as much as Angela hated hurting like this she hated missing him even more, even though she had just found out what he had done, behind her back no less.<p>

'_Even if he did cheat…'_ she thought bitterly, _'Even though I'll never see him again and I just can't hate him. I hate that I can't hate him!'_ Her entire world had revolved around him. He had helped her cold and pitiless world become something better. Her outlook on everything had changed. And now it had changed again. She had no idea exactly when her once icy cold world, turned into a tropically warm paradise. But now, it had fallen victim to an ice storm. It was all his fault and the worst things was that she knew that there was no one else to blame but herself. She should have seen the signs but she was too blinded by love to do anything else but fall so head over heels for him she saw nothing else but the good things.

It had been their one year anniversary. It was supposed to be the happiest day of the year, aside from birthdays and other seemingly meaningless holidays. She was going to surprise him by taking him out to dinner since he always took her out, granted, she had used his name to get the reservation but she was sure he wouldn't mind. He had been working on a huge project and had little to no time to see her as of late. So she thought she would treat him for once. She had gone to his mansion. His brother had let her in but she had been so caught up in her how she was going to surprise her boyfriend that she had missed the apprehensive look on the boy's face. She might have saved herself the heartache if she had just asked him what was going on and what had him so worried. She now wished that she had asked.

She had gone upstairs with a bounce in her step and a smile on her face. She traveled down the hallways with perfect ease. She traced down the halls, smiling at the pictures that hung on the walls. Her boyfriend never really was a photogenic man, or so he claimed, but she thought he looked good in pictures. She just assumed it was because he was camera shy and he disliked being chased by the paparazzi but she had to admit, when he wanted a picture taken he at least looked really good in having it taken of him or of his target. He could have been a photographer if he wanted to but he had his heart set on his company. She dimly recalled stopping outside his room, outside his door. She opened the door – never before needing a reason to knock before she entered.

"Set-"

Now she wished that she had reason to knock before ever entering his room. The sight before her froze her very innards. For a few moments, Angela was at a complete loss as to what to do. Her mind had shut down and she was left floundering. There was a disgusting, stinging feeling in the back of her throat, and it felt like she was going to throw up. Her heart skipped a beat. She watched as her boyfriend made out with another woman. She gasped in pain. Her hand clutched the door knob even tighter. It was going to leave an imprint on her hand for later but she couldn't even bring herself to focus on that detail. Instantly the kissing couple broke apart. The woman giggled slightly. She clung to Seto's arm despite the fact that he tried to shrug her off. She felt tears well up in her eyes as she stared at him. She didn't say a word to him.

"Angela…" he breathed, "Its not-"

"It's not _what_, Seto?" she asked.

She hated how her voice that suggested she was either going to suddenly burst out laughing hysterically or to start crying. What made it worse was that she wasn't sure which she was going to do. She didn't wan to do either, or at least show either of them to the CEO. He would only see it as a sign of weakness and she hated weakness just as much as he did. So she tried to back her words up she glared at him as coldly as she could manage. Angela was angry. Seto knew that all too well and yet he did nothing. She felt like the world couldn't care less about her and she was the only one who would fight for herself.

"I…"

Seto stepped towards her. Angela stepped away but he kept walking closer and closer to her. In a whirlwind of suffocating emotions her mind was clouded. She drew her hand back and let her fist fly. The next thing she knew was that he was on the ground clutching his jaw. He stared at her with widen blue eyes as the girl he had been kissing screamed something about assault but Angela didn't hear a word of it. All she did was stare at Seto Kaiba without saying a single word. She simply couldn't so she wouldn't say anything out of fear of saying something that really shouldn't have been said as she normally did when she was angry.

She had given him the most important part of herself – her heart – and he had tossed it aside like yesterday's garbage. She didn't understand. He had said that he loved her, that he cared for her. She had always been there for him, just as he had always been there for her. She swallowed hard, trying to keep the lump of emotion out of her throat. Her throat burned as she struggled to swallow the bitter emotions. She didn't want him to do such a cruel thing. She frowned and tried to rein in the overwhelming emotions she felt dancing around in her heart. It was almost too much to bear. Her breaths were becoming shaky as they left her trembling lips. She was very close to hyperventilating. The last thing she wanted to have happen was to have him call a hospital for her.

She wanted an explanation. She deserved an explanation. He should have realized that his actions not only affected him but her as well. They had been together for over a year. They depended on one another. She could hardly imagine doing something without him. He should have realized that by now and yet here he stood yanking the last firm anchor out from beneath her feet. He knew she had nothing left to hold onto anymore. He was the last thing that kept her happy anymore, aside from the few friends in her college classes but even they weren't enough to provide complete and utter happiness that she felt around Seto. He had helped her through her rough patch and stopped her from taking her own life when he should have been focusing on other things, like the upcoming Dueling Tournaments and Kaiba Land openings that he had been looking forward to. He tried to act nonchalant about being around her and helping her out, though he never really helped anyone except for himself.

There were only two people in his life that others kept telling her he cared about – himself and Mokuba – no one else. Yet, he helped her heal the wounds of her heart, while she fell in love with him. He had fallen for her too, or at least that's what he kept telling her. She recalled from childhood that she used to refer to crying as being soul sick, that it was the sadness attacking the heart and making it weep and ache with pain that she hated. She tried hard not to laugh bitterly as she bit back a sob. She was not only soul sick, she was confused and sad and angry all at once in such a whirlwind of despairing fury that she thought she'd spontaneously combust. She wouldn't have minded, at least then she'd be free. She had felt like exploding. Suddenly wanting to escape this stifling nightmare of sallow walls and shadowy callous specters, Angela fled down the steps blindly. She hopped into her car the moment she left the mansion, nearly plowing down Mokuba as she ran. She wanted nothing more than to just forget everything she saw.

She hoped it was just a bad dream but she knew it was real. She knew that she was awake. Yet there were times where she wanted to drown out everything around her and became a blank slate, incapable of feeling any emotional pain, particularly at that one moment as she watched Kaiba from her rear view mirror. He stood in the doorway of his mansion, watching her drive off. A heart was a very heavy burden. Sometimes she didn't want to bear it. She was withdrawing so deeply into herself that everything melted away and it felt as if there were no other people in the world. She had been lost in thought but about what was a mystery that no one had solved yet. It seemed that no one intended to find out. She was on her own, drowning in the oceans of her misery without any sign of the shore.

She swallowed hard. The tears were almost too painful to keep back and each breath brought pain to her chest. Breathing was becoming hard. She felt like she was going to start hyperventilating at any moment. She had to get away, no matter what she had to do or where she had to go in order to do so. She couldn't stay in Domino. The need to escape was simply too much for her to deny. She simply hated the way her heart was bleeding. She felt like she was suffocating. She heard her phone go off. Numbly she reached for it, despite the fact her parents had instilled into her that talking on the phone and driving at the same time was a bad idea. She looked at the caller id. It was her best friend Jasmine. She would have smiled, had she been called under better circumstances. Slowly she raised the phone to her ear, ready to talk.

"H-hello?"

Jasmine was her best friend from middle school. They had met on the first day of classes and had been inseparable since. Granted, now that they were older they had gone to different colleges, mostly because of interests they held, Jasmine going to Domino University and Angela heading to Domino Academy of Performing Arts. But if there was ever to be one thing Angela knew would never change it would be that Jasmine was there for her when no one else was, or ever would be. It was only fitting that she call when Angela needed her most. Jasmine was always the first person Angela went to when she had a problem. Now would be no different.

Jasmine was a free spirit, someone who was not meant to be caged, even if it was for her own protection. Someone like her, withered behind bars, no matter how lavishly the cages are decorated or how loving they are erected. If Angela had to list the most noticeable trait about Jasmine she would automatically respond with her eyes. She found that whenever she looked into Jasmine's eyes she found something that seemed as if they could read the hearts of other people, inside and out, and gauge their intentions. A lot of people had a hard time even meeting her eyes because they would see something in those eyes, an ability to read people that could only come through years of experience, and an unnatural maturity that should not exist in someone so young.

"_Ang?"_ Jasmine asked, _"What's going on? Where are you?" _

"I… he…"

Jasmine knew something was wrong within the instant that Angela spoke with the way that she couldn't gather words and the pure misery that just jabbed through her voice no matter how much Angela tried to hide it from her. Angela didn't need to be right next to the girl to know that her heart was going out to her. Angela bowed her head. Seto had cheated on her when he knew she had been in that position before. It hurt to know that everything she held dear, everything she thought was the truth was nothing but a lie. To know that Seto used her that way hurt her beyond anything he had ever said or done before. She wanted to sob but she held her breath so that she didn't. She didn't need to worry Jasmine any more than she had to. She thought he loved her. She had thought a lot of things, only to be proven wrong.

"_Do you want me to come to you?"_ Jasmine asked, _"Or do you want to come to my house?"_

She felt herself nodding, even though Jasmine couldn't see the gesture because she was on the other side of the phone but she knew that Jasmine understood her better than anyone else in her life had, at least as far as friends went. She had been cheated on before. Granted, Seto always hid his feelings from everyone – including Mokuba. But just because he wasn't overly affectionate it didn't mean his betrayal of her trust didn't sting any less. She had cared for him with all her heart. If he had asked her to jump of a bridge she was positive she would have done it, just to see him smile. With her last break up Jasmine was the one to help walk her through it, along with their other friends. She wondered if she could take advantage of the offer, but she was more than positive that Jasmine had plans that night.

"_Angela?"_

She hiccupped as she tried to steady herself but her heart was still sending her reeling. Then she started wiping away tears as she cradled the phone against her shoulder. Her other hand was kept firmly on the wheel, as not to crash as she was driving. It would put an even worse damper on her day, plus she really didn't want to end up in the hospital for crashing. Seto would never let her forget it if she had gotten into an accident right after seeing him with another woman but that would probably give her all she needed to deck him as hard as she could. She sniffed loudly. In the background of Jasmine's phone she could hear someone else talking, loudly and quickly. It was a guy. If Jasmine had a date Angela didn't want to interrupt. If she couldn't be happy then there was no reason as to why Jasmine shouldn't have been either.

"_Come over, Ang. I want to help you."_

Angela sniffed again. The tears hadn't stopped raining down her cheeks and she was surprised she had remained so level-headed since she was already crying but she knew she was one step from hysteria. Anything would set her off. The slightest memory could send her into a wave of broken tears and heartache. This pain would leave her broken and aching in its wake. She didn't want to sob as she drove. She licked her lips because they had gotten dry, ironic considering how wet her face felt, really. It wouldn't be safe – not for her or for the others on the road. Her hysteria would get her sued in court for crashing into someone. Her insurance was good, just not great. Her insurance wasn't like Seto's that could cover everything and then some.

"_Please, Ang. I wasn't planning on going anywhere tonight."_

"Okay…"


	2. Chapter 2: Seeking Solace

Angela had carefully pulled into Jasmine's driveway before the door opened. Jasmine walked out quickly and meaningfully towards her without even waiting for her to get out. She knew when she was needed and when to back off. Quite frankly, Angela was glad Jasmine called when she did or else she would have been driving around aimlessly all night. Angela turned her car off and stepped out. Rushing forward, she wound her arms tightly around Jasmine's middle, squeezing her eyes shut and crying into her shoulder. The other woman was surprised, no more than a second, but she hugged back. Jasmine had made a noise of surprise but placed her hands on Angela's back gently. Hiding her face, Angela could hear her faint breathing, in and out, in and out, and her heartbeat did little to calm her but it was beating slowly in an oddly relaxing rhythm.

"Ang?"

"He… Seto – he-"

"Angela?" Jasmine tried again.

Angela started to sob with big, fat, wet tears streaking down her face. The pain was still very much fresh, just as cutting as it was the moment she walked in on Seto and that other woman. She dimly recalled how she nearly trampled Mokuba on her way out of the house but she couldn't bring herself to care at that moment. Jasmine's eyes widened. She quickly led Angela into her house. She was sure Jasmine didn't want to make a spectacle for her neighbors to watch. Someone was bound to ask questions later. They always did, especially when something strange happened. Jasmine would lie about it later, to make sure that Angela wasn't embarrassed, unless she said it was okay to tell the truth. But it would be up to Angela as to if the truth were told or not.

Jasmine had always been that way. It's why she and Angela were friends in the first place. Jasmine put her morals over her heart. She would laugh. Angela was the one who noticed that she was hiding something behind those laughs. She knew the trick too well since she did it sometimes, just to make sure that no one worried about her when she knew that she would be fine if she were just given some time to heal and take care of things on her own, but sometimes, depending on others to help was nice too. They had difficult times in their lives but they had moved on despite the hardships. They came out as better people because of it in the end. She had been in the same position before. She had lost the passion that was inside of her. The fire inside of her was dying. She was the angry and complicated puzzle that he now focused a part of his attention to.

"Eh? Jaz, who's the chick?"

Angela looked up. There were three guys in Jasmine's living room. One man had on an open blue denim one jacket with a raised collar, a white T-shirt underneath and blue jeans. He was pale skinned. The boy appeared to have been laughing because of a rosy tint to his cheeks, before she had appeared. She understood how her haggard appearance would make a person stop laughing. She was a sight to see. She knew her eyes were bloodshot and that her hair was disheveled. She was an utter mess. She couldn't bring herself to care what those boys thought about her. She wanted to swear off of guys completely but she knew that wasn't going to happen so she was just going to have trust issues for a while.

One of the others boys wore tight black jeans that sat low on his hips, a mesh black tank top, combat boots, two wrist bands, a choker, and, ironically enough, the two gold arm bands. They looked like they were jewelry from the time Pharaohs, a connection to the past. How Angela knew that she didn't know but she felt that it had something to do with the fact that Jasmine liked studying history. She was currently studying the Rose War with Henry Tudor and Richard the III but she had been studying Egypt a while back ago. But the boy in front of her was dark skinned and had strange black hair star shaped hair and some red highlights dashing through the black with lightening bolt streaks, some of the bolts streaked up towards the sky. Crimson eyes watched her carefully uncertain as to who she was or what she was even doing there.

She glared at her friend. She had been under the impression that Jasmine had no plans, and no company for that matter. Angela was interrupting her night by coming over to unload her problems and heartache onto her friend's plate. The other brunette smiled sheepishly. She knew that Angela was going to get mad at her for this but really it was better than leaving Angela to her own devices, knowing just how crazy she was. Since they were now legal to drink, Jasmine was bound to be called at all sorts of hours to go and get Angela. While she didn't mind helping her friend, going to the bars was one of Jasmine's lest favorite things to do especially when bringing a drunk home, only friends ever got that honor of having Jasmine tending to their every whim while they were hungover. She pulled Angela over to the couch before easing her into it. Jasmine sat right down next to her, leaving one of the guys to shut the door for her.

"It's game night," Jasmine explained.

Angela looked up in surprise. She then looked around as quick as a flash as she looked over at their kitchen. The game of Life had been set up on the kitchen table. All the pieces were out and set up. They had been in the middle of the game. Jasmine smiled sheepishly but then put her hand on Angela's forearm to comfort her friend. Jasmine motioned silently for the guys to go over to the table. They could play without Jasmine. She could go one night without losing to the guys in the most honorable way possible when the guys insisted that they could help her. However, her friends never moved back over to the table where their game had been. They hovered around Jasmine and the discomforted girl.

"But what happened?" Jasmine asked in all seriousness.

"He… cheated…" Angela croaked, "He cheated and I saw him…"

Somehow, speaking it aloud made it worse, a thousand times worse really once Angela started thinking about it more and more. It was like she was actually accepting it, admitting and letting the entire world know of her moment of weakness and her hurt. Angela started crying again. She was surprised she could still manage this since she had cried so much on her way to Jasmine's but she still managed to surprise herself. Her mind was still screaming at her that this couldn't have been real, that this couldn't have been happening to her. But her being there, with Jasmine, just made it all the more true because otherwise she would have been having a very nice dinner with Kaiba, celebrating their anniversary, while she chatted about useless things and Kaiba listened, occasionally commenting on something or another that she had said.

"But it's your anniversary!" Jasmine gasped.

Angela threw her arms around Jasmine's neck and sobbed freely the moment that Jasmine touched either of her biceps, gently. She had loved Seto with all her heart. She thought he had been the one. Jasmine pat her on the back, trying to comfort her but she really wasn't sure of what to do because she had never suffered of a broken heart. Jasmine had never dated anyone really. The girl looked at the boys over Angela's shoulders with a pained expression. The boys shifted anxiously because they didn't know what to do or what they should say because they certainly didn't want to go and make things worse for Angela or to make things more difficult for Jasmine.

"Do you want us to leave?" one of the guys asked.

Jasmine didn't answer. She looked at Angela, waiting for her to decide whether or not she wanted the guys – Jasmine's friends to leave from her home. Jasmine was too kind to offer to make her other guests leave so she could deal with her distraught guest. Angela felt like her feelings were being weighed out on some defective scale. Instead of feeling even the smallest ounce of joy she felt three-times as much anger, bitter resentment against herself for being blind in her selfishness. She just wanted to be happy. In reality it didn't seem like too much to ask for but for someone up there it obviously was because nothing she did ever earned her the happiness that she wanted. She had dealt with countless of deadbeat boyfriends and no good men, all of which Jasmine gave her opinion of and it turned out to be true but she believed the men, and that their intentions were good, even when they were not.

"I… no…" Angela said, "Don't make them leave because of me…"

Angela was infuriatingly apathetic at the moment and in an endless miserable mood but even against her bad energy Jasmine couldn't help but know that deep, deep down in that concrete heart there had to be vulnerability and the need to be wanted. She was really putting her heart out there to even come and talk to anyone after what had happened with Kaiba. Jasmine was interested – now more than ever – to find out what had happened exactly with Kaiba but that would have to wait when no one was around. She didn't want Angela to be forced to spill her life secrets to her guy friends. Angela didn't even know any of them. If Kaiba had hurt her, even in the slightest of manners then Jasmine would make sure to make the man pay. He would suffer as Angela had suffered or else Jasmine would let herself suffer.

Jasmine nodded but she looked a little apprehensive about the whole thing. She had honestly thought that Angela would have wanted to have had her guests leave and so she could talk to her about whatever it was that was upsetting her with Kaiba. Jasmine got to her feet. She had a role to play because she had guests over. Naturally, she had to be a good hostess and make everyone as happy and content as possible when they were in her home. The hostess picked up a DVD and popped the movie into her DVD player. Her guests all settled into their respective couches, around her and the television. Angela was surprised when the blond boy settled into the couch with her. They didn't touch but him simply being there was comforting her – some stranger sobbing her eyes out over a cheating backstabbing boyfriend that the man knew nothing about in the first place because Angela had said nothing.

"Is a horror okay with you guys?" Jasmine asked.

"Gorier the better!" the blond cheered.

Angela smiled weakly at the blond's obvious cheer. Some horror movies were okay with her. She knew they bothered Jasmine and that she avoided bloody movies like the plague. Angela raised an eyebrow. This raised the question why she was watching a horror movie if she knew that she disliked them so much. But by the apparent excitement on the faces of her guests, Jasmine was only watching them because she was trying to be a good hostess. She always was a bit of a people pleaser and always put the wants and desires of others over herself. That was just how Jasmine was. Angela knew that because the two had been that way for as long as Angela could remember, at least for as many years as the two had been friends.

"It's the original Nightmare on Elm Street," Jasmine said.

Angela shivered but it was not because of the cold chill she thought was in the room. She had stopped crying for now at least. She was sniffling but the tears had stopped. However, the agony that she had felt was still rather near her heart. She was just putting off crying for the moment because she was in company. Never once did she notice that she had leaned close to the other person on the couch – the nameless blond. He leaned close to her as well, except this time he seemed to realize that she needed someone there for her. Jasmine offered everyone bowls of popcorn and a soda apiece. The blond made sure that Angela took food and drink. He even made sure she ate what she was given. He made sure she drank what she was offered. And it wasn't that he forced her to. He just pushed the food and drink into her hand and let her decide whether or not to eat or not but he watched her until she did eat and she did drink.

The movie wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. She had seen worse movies in her life, like a movie she had to watch back in high school for her Spanish class for level three Spanish. It was called La Katrina. And normally she had nothing against foreign films but the acting in that movie was so terrible the students learned nothing about the Spanish they were supposed to be learning about. Instead they made fun of the actors and the characters. She had no idea how the teacher expected them to focus when the acting was so horrible and cliché that the students couldn't focus on what assignments they were given about the movie itself. That was just the way things were though. She supposed that even teachers could make mistakes.

"Thanks for letting us come over, Jasmine."

Jasmine smiled as she led her guests outside. Angela watched as Jasmine got into her car and backed it up so the boys could get out. It made her wonder when Jasmine had gotten her car keys but really that wasn't important. Jasmine would never do anything bad with her car so she trusted her friend to be able to back up her car and put it right back into place, which was what the other woman did once the men pulled out of her driveway. After they were gone Jasmine pulled Anglea's car into the driveway. She stepped out of the car, locking it. Locking the car was something that Angela had a hard time remembering to do sometimes. However, the smile that had been on her face was gone. She was all business as she walked back into her dark apartment and her awaiting friend. Angela almost regretted coming over because of the look on Jasmine's face.

"What happened?"

Those two words were enough to make everything come spilling out of her lips in an instant. Because honestly, friends were there to listen and to help one another so Jasmine was what Angela needed at the moment to help her think logically, at least while her emotions had the range of a short-circuiting switch that would trigger at the slightest of things. And for a while the two just sat there, Jasmine listening and Angela talking. The best thing about Jasmine was that she was a great listener. She never judged and she always looked at both sides of the story before deciding what to do. This time, Jasmine just stayed quiet. She frowned and looked out the window. It was way past dark now, well into two or three in the morning. Jasmine sighed. It was then that Angela noticed the bags under her eyes.

"The reason the guys were over tonight, wasn't just for the movie," Jasmine said, "Yugi saw Kaiba with the… other woman…"

Angela stiffened. She looked up in absolute horror. Strangers were looking out for her under Jasmine's orders. She had never felt like such a little kid in her entire life. Her best friend didn't even trust her to make the right decision! Actually, that was a lie. Her best friend was only looking out for her best interest. She probably didn't even send the boy to spy. Jasmine only ever told the bare minimal about her friends to others unless she absolutely trusted them. But if this Yugi kid had seen Kaiba cheating why wasn't she warned sooner. She would have done something a little more drastic than running out of the house and weeping her heart out. She would have screamed, maybe have thrown things, she most certainly would have thrown punches if she had been thinking properly but that was just it, she wasn't thinking properly.

"They came over to tell me, so I could warn you… And, I guess it came too late."

"Then why were the others here with them?" Angela asked.

"Well, it was movie night and Yugi just got back from Hong Kong, and a duel tournament," Jasmine explained, "It was the perfect opportunity since he just saw them when he was in Hong Kong, since Kaiba was a competitor too."

Angela bowed her head. Kaiba had lied to her too. He said he had business in France just a few days ago, not a dueling tournament in Hong Kong. He had went off to the opposite side of the world just so he could be with the other woman so Angela didn't find out about it. It was cruel and heartless not to mention cowardly. She would have wanted to go if it was a tournament instead of a business trip. She liked seeing his monsters in play. She liked watching him duel because he got so caught up in the game that he might have actually have passed for having fun. Now all she could see was that he played the game for the money and the fame that came from winning. It was disgusting and in a way it almost ruined the sweet childish game she had grown to love, even participate in from time to time, but now she wasn't so sure she could even look at her cards, let alone touch them because Kaiba and Mokuba helped set up her deck for her.

"Listen, Ang, you're tired… Why don't you just stay the night, okay?" Jasmine suggested, "If you need anything, anything at all, just come and get me."

Angela only nodded. Jasmine led her to her guest bedroom and set out some pajamas for her. As soon as Jasmine left her alone she sat on the bed, trying her best not to cry again. Alone in the bedroom, she had pulled out an old photograph. The edges of the paper were dog-eared, and the photograph was tinted sepia from years of being stuck in the bottom of a draw. In the center she stood, with Jasmine and Kaiba by her sides. Kaiba looked out of place, the way he stood too far away from the, and how his smile was too tense, he looked awkward next to her. It was as if he was accidentally in the photo, but Jasmine and Angela… She had to admit, they looked perfect. Angela's arm was around Jasmine's shoulders, Jasmine's arm was wrapped around her shoulder in haste, as if it were a last minute idea. Their smiles were so genuine, unlike the one in her family photo that rested on the edge of her desk at home. Kaiba's smile was barely visible, and if you looked close enough, you could see bags of exhaustion underneath his eyes. But in this picture with Kaiba, and while she looked… happy, it was plain to see she wasn't.

Angela looked out her window, her hand resting against her chin, index finger idly brushing her upper lip. She and Kaiba had once been so close, and now… now they were barely friends and it was much more ruined after the day's fiasco. At dinners they would sit next to each other, but their talks were nothing more than that of co-workers. She tried to think back to the last time she had asked for a hug, or even reached out for her hand under the table. There was nothing besides that when they had started dating. And now, there was nothing at all. Maybe this was all for the better. Maybe this was supposed to happen, but really, she didn't want to believe that.


	3. Chapter 3: You Can Only Go Up From Here

It wasn't even a week later when she saw Kaiba once again. This time he was without his other girlfriend in the streets, as if they weren't even together to being with. Their year long relationship meant nothing apparently. Tears prickled in her eyes. Kaiba kissed the woman on the cheek before allowing her to step into a limo that had pulled up. Angela recognized Roland in the front of the limo. She swallowed thickly as she caught sight of the boy. Mokuba was sitting in the back of the limo, judging by the music that she could hear wafting through a cracked window. Angela tried to walk away as quickly as she could but as fate would have it, she did not get far without getting caught. Kaiba barely noticed that he bumped right into her until she looked up at him, trying her best not to start crying again. He had to be so cruel, didn't he?

"Oh… Angela…" he muttered.

"Can… Can we talk?"

Kaiba nodded. He took her by her forearm and led her to a small coffee shop. He ordered her favorite from that particular shop, knowing what she preferred and what she didn't. At least he could get something right. She looked out the window. The limo wasn't pulling away without Kaiba. Angela looked up at him. He hadn't intended on a very long conversation with her. The fact he wasn't going to talk for long made her feel like scum. She wasn't even worth his time of the day. He wanted to cut her out of his life as quickly as he could. She felt a stabbing ache in her chest. Her hand gripped the cup that Kaiba had given her tightly. If she squeezed any tighter she would make the cup burst and the hot coffee would slop all over the table, creating a much undesired mess. Angela wouldn't want to deal with the mess, nor the burns her hand would receive. Kaiba probably already thought that she was over thinking it and that she should just let go already.

"You weren't supposed to find out about this… I was going to break it off."

Angela cringed. That was Kaiba, short, swift and to the point, no matter how painful it was for her. And honestly what did she expect from the practically emotionally detached CEO? Some flowery apology or denial about what she had seen,_ 'I would never do that? I care only about you? I'm the only one for you? You are the only one for me? You are everything to me? You mean the world? You are my life?' _She gripped her cup almost to the point of making the Styrofoam crack. Jasmine was not one to cave into using such meaningful words easily but those words could easily win Angela back over again because they were precisely what she wanted to hear. People took those words highly for granted these days, and Jasmine loathed that fact with a passion. Why ever say 'forever' when people could abandon you for someone else just because of something silly? They had no idea how long an 'eternity' was and while Angela admitted that she still ached.

"So this is it, then?" she asked.

Kaiba got to his feet. She stared at him with watery eyes. Honestly, she was doing her best not to cry again. But this was painful. It honestly felt like he had taken a knife to her heart and gouged it out and was currently squeezing it for all his worth because truly it felt like there was a vice over her pounding heart. He paused for a moment, considering whether or not to wipe the forming tears away or to give her a napkin or something to at least cry into so that she could hide her face but then that would be a form of still caring for her. He was leaving her for a reason. He was in love with someone else. She just wasn't the right one for him but he just didn't get to tell her before she found out about it. He sighed deeply. This is why Mokuba thought he was 'emotionally retarded' and mentioned it almost daily.

"That's all you have to say?" she demanded.

"This is all I need to say."

Anger flashed on her face. She was gripping the cup tightly in her hands. The cup was going to break if she wasn't careful but she didn't care. She was just so livid that she wanted to just beat his face in and keep going until he was practically unable to move. However, that would put out a warrant for her arrest and as good of a friend that Jasmine was, Angela doubted that she would pay bail for her assault charges against a multimillionaire, no matter how much he deserved being beaten. Sure, Jasmine might have done something underhanded and mean to the man but her sorts of 'attacks' were the psychological warfare kind, the kind that left no marks aside from the person's change in personality after she was done. She couldn't get in trouble for that. Jasmine had once shoved a man into a pool for breaking up with her and then claiming to have gotten together with one of Angela's other friends the next day, saying he was glad the two were no longer dating.

"No it isn't!" she growled.

"I realize that I wronged you-"

"Wronged me?" Angela asked, brokenly, "You think you merely 'wronged me?'"

Kaiba could see the fire burning in her eyes and it made him shift anxiously in his seat. He had seen that anger on her several times before but never directed at him. It was normally reserved only for people who had hurt her and broken all trust she had or would ever have in them. It made him feel like scum. The distain and the anger were hard to hide in her burning, smoldering gaze. He was reminded of his other girlfriend and for a moment as he gazed at her he could almost see his girlfriend standing behind her, yelling those words as well, moving and gesturing as she did, mirroring his former girlfriend. He could see the similarities the two shared but they were two different people. In the end he had fallen for the other woman. He was just a coward and didn't tell Angela. She was better than that, she deserved better than that after everything they had been through. Guilt plucked at him but being the stoic business man he was he was able to bury the emotion deeply so that no one would ever find how he felt.

"One year!" she screamed, "One year I wasted on you! Not a day went by when I didn't do something for you!"

Kaiba couldn't meet her gaze. She glowered at him before sighing. She released her hold on her cup. It had cracked slightly. Coffee was leaking out of the tiny slit and onto the table. Wearily she grabbed a napkin and dabbed at it, staining the white surface of the napkin almost instantly. She sighed, as if she were in the middle of a frustrating conversation with a child, a tone he had noticed that she took quite often when she was talking with him. Sure, sometimes he did things differently from other people however that was no reason to constantly tell him he was wrong. However, she was kind, patient, and affectionate. She was the same way to Mokuba. But no matter how he looks at it, he never truly loved her. She was more like a sister, he never had or a good friend. Now he went and blew it.

"Why? Why would you do something like this?" Angela asked, hurt, "I loved you…"

Angela was now shaking as she looked at Kaiba. He could tell herself restraint was waning and that she longed to punch him as hard as she could muster. He knew she had not held herself back in the past. Once she had punched Bandit Keith but that was because the man was trying to get her drunk enough to tell him the weakness to Kaiba's deck, as if she knew in the first place, but she had still had a little to drink when she did hit him. She stepped back away from him so she didn't do that, regaining some sort of self-control. She ran a hand through her hair, trying to keep herself from crying once more. She had shed enough tears in the past few days to last her a lifetime. She was tired of shedding tears for the man who obviously didn't care whether she cried for him or not. She was tired of him and she was tired of being tired. Given time, one day she might just grow to forgive him but it would take a lot of time for her. She was head over heels for him.

"Couldn't you have told m-?"

"Goodbye…"

He started to walk away from her, as if their conversation were over. She didn't say it was over just yet. Anger boiled under her skin at being snuffed by the aloof man. There were moments in time where a woman lost her temper. It didn't matter how sweet she may be, how kind, polite, loving, and patient, it was going to happen. It was just the way the world worked. And unfortunately, many of these times were caused by a man, typically one without any intent to do so. This was one of those moments. Angela was past the point of no return. Kaiba had pushed her to that point and naturally, because he had caused the anger, he would have to deal with the anger one way or another and whether he wanted to or not. He should have known that she was at her limit. He had seen her get angry enough over the year they were together.

"Wait…"

Kaiba froze in his tracks. To her relief she had kept her voice as flat and steady as she could manage. There was no anger. There was no hate. They would only overwhelm him and leave her standing on the edge of what she truly felt: betrayed, frightened, despairing and alone. He turned around. She got to her feet and walked up to him. Before he could react she punched him in the face. The coffee shop fell silent as he fell to the floor but Angela felt like a weight had been removed from her chest. However, the anger still lingered as she marched sharply out of the shop. Let Kaiba press charges if he felt like it. The double-crossing jerk would just have to deal with the media because he got beaten up by a woman. That would really insult his manhood. The media would never let him live it down, plus, men would make several jokes about him. She knew. She had seen the tabloids absolutely destroy people before. She never thought anyone deserved that kind of treatment but in Kaiba's case she would throw him to the dogs if he tried to mess with her. She had enough dirt on him from dating to make the tabloids very happy.

In her rage she stomped around town, scaring many a good person out of her way. People had taken to avoiding her like the plague, fearing that she would lash out at them and tear them limb-from-limb. However, someone started to call her name. She huffed and spun around, prepared to hit them too, but she froze. It as the blond – the one at one of Jasmine's movie nights – the same man who sat with her on the couch and made her eat and drink despite the fact she felt like she was going to be sick, but honestly the food and drink did her good that night. It helped clear her mind just a little bit. It made sure she didn't go and do something stupid. Not that Jasmine would have let her do anything stupid but the thought still remained. Through her junk food, movie watching stupor she slowly started to realize it wasn't her fault that Kaiba was a heartless dirty cheat. She wasn't the one who cheated.

"I saw dat you punched, moneybags," a blond said, "Dat was one hell of a breakup and an even better left hook!"

"A word of advice, forget relationships, they're nothing but a waste of time and tears."

"Ya shouldn't deny your heart like dis," Joey countered.

Angela snorted in contempt. Joey gave her a saddened look. He wouldn't have been the least bit surprised if she cried herself to sleep at nights when there was no one around to see the liquid pain and utter remorse running down her face. He was tempted to take her hand and hug her, the way his mom used to before his parents divorced. It always helped Serenity when she was depressed. He just wanted to tell her that it wouldn't always be so bad. But she was heartbroken, a shattered remnant of whom she used to be because her mind was clouded with just how low it was that Kaiba cheated. He might have actually have liked to have met that girl before she was locked away in the deep recesses of Angela's heart but now all that remained was the standoffish and angry girl before him. She glowered at him as he just stood there. He just wouldn't leave her alone no matter how much she glared at him.

"Back off!"

Something about the way she'd said that, with the acidic hatred in her voice, left Joey without a reply. He swallowed. He shifted in his spot on the street, just three feet away from her. He even rubbed the back of his neck and yet he still didn't leave. Angela bowed her head, trying to keep the tears out of her eyes. She didn't want Joey to see her cry. Joey frowned. She was standing up, but she was recoiling because something he had said hurt her. Her expression was unreadable. Joey couldn't tell what she was thinking. Emotions kept flickering through her eyes so fast that he couldn't tell where which one started and where another ended. He swallowed nervously and tried to think of something to say to her to make it alright but all words escaped his thoughts. He didn't really know what to say to her and nothing would have made it okay. It was just the way things were. Nothing was okay but nothing was wrong either.

"Ya can't be so practical about everythin', Ang," Joey commented.

"Just watch me," Angela snarled.

Joey just smiled at her. She inhaled shakily as she tried to maintain her composure but she hadn't felt this frustrated in her entire life. He lifted her head so that he could look at her once she had her nerve back but her lack of nerve seemed to pass her almost laughing, in fact, it probably waved to her as it passed by in a mocking gesture that just screamed 'fuck you'. Angela looked away from his eyes. She felt a little uncomfortable under Joey's gaze. His eyes seemed to bore into her and she felt like he could see right into her two-faced soul. He could see the quite real Angela that wanted nothing more than to be with those that she loved but she was too afraid to let others in out of fear that they would get hurt. He could also see the distanced and emotionally detached front that she put up to keep others out. She knew that he could definitely tell the difference between the two women, the one she was and the one she pretended to be. That, for some reason, scared her to death. She wanted to make him look away from her.

"You let me call ya Ang…" he said, happily.

Angela sneered at him. She wanted to clock him. But she had already punched one person too many. In fact, she wouldn't be surprised if Kaiba's hit wasn't in the papers tomorrow. She would have fan girls coming after her to seek a bloody vengeance. She shook her head to clear the thoughts away. To her, Joey was the most complex minds she had ever had the pleasure, or displeasure, to have met. Unpredictable, sometimes unreliable and irrational - but Lord, if he was dedicated to a cause, then he would fight for it. He disliked depending on others too much but he also hated people who tried to do everything on their own, and by everything he meant everything. They had to realize that they weren't superman or some other super hero and they couldn't do everything they put their mind to just because they believed they could do it.

"A brat like you really gets on my nerves! You're totally _clueless_!" Angela screamed, "You have no idea…"

Angela bowed her head, trying to keep the tears out of her eyes. She didn't want Joey to see her cry. He could see his Angela's turmoil, her pain, sorrow, and regret, but it was all pushed behind a stoic mask of uncaring. But he wanted a reaction, a sign that Angela was still Angela. He wanted to see some of his friend's friend back. The girl hadn't been anything like the person Jasmine told them about at all. In fact, Angela was acting like Kaiba of all people. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He just met her, yes. She was kind of pretty. She was a good friend of Yugi's friend. But she just got out of a relationship with Kaiba no less. But she was also someone who had her heart crushed completely by someone that she thought she could trust. It had to be very hard, Joey realized as he watched her. She was unable to keep away the sting of her tears, the trembling, and unable to preventing the lump inside her throat that formed no matter how much she swallowed to make it dissolve.

"You have no idea…" she repeated but then even softer she said, "What is truly _precious_…"

"Then show me!" Joey insisted.

She blinked, staring at him owlishly. This statement had visibly caught Angela off-guard. She let her hand drop to her sides, though she had no idea what she was reaching for in the first place. She stepped back, narrowly missing collision with a passing mother with her children. Angela's mouth curved into the shape of an 'o' and she attempted a reply, but found she had no words as Joey smiled at her. Angela twitched at the way he had said it, in a way so definite, so genuine, that it sounded as if he had decided that he could just order her around right then and there, simply because he could. She felt her face grow hot at the sudden and unthinking words he just spluttered out. She didn't even know what to say to him. Her mind was still trying to process how they had even gotten there in the first place. Took a walk. Check. Ran into Kaiba. Check. Spoke with Kaiba. Check. Punched Kaiba. Check. Ran into Joey. Check. Started to talk to Joey. Check.

"W-what?"

She looked over to the right, trying to cover her embarrassment. Her hair made a good veil for her burning pink face. Joey's smile gained a mischievous edge. It was then that she noticed something about him. He always seemed to speak with the slightest tremble in his voice—perhaps from excitement or nervousness. Perhaps simply with the pent-up energy of youth that he never seemed to be rid of. Joey was just happy all the time it seemed, even when she was yelling at him he had yet to lose that stupid obnoxious smile of his. She was bitter about what happened to her and she was letting it affect the rest of her life. She had to snap out of it. Kaiba was most certainly not worth ruining her life over and if he moved on so should she. She was worth more than what Kaiba had given her. She was a better person than how he treated her. But it wasn't the first time she had thought this, however it was driven home by Joey's happy-go-lucky persona.

"Show me what is truly precious then…" Joey ordered, "We can go to this burger joint I know…"

"Are you asking me out?" Angela asked.

Joey frowned, considering it. She stood there, waiting for his response. She knew that going out with someone new – as friends alone – would be good for her. She wasn't ready for a relationship, but who knew? Things always had a strange way of happening for a reason. Perhaps it was better that she and Kaiba didn't work out. Who cares if she spent time with another person after she just broke up? It wasn't her problem anymore. She didn't have to care about the media haunting her every step anymore. They wouldn't care about her until Kaiba reported that he was seeing someone else or they caught him with the other girl. She was free from having to look perfect, act perfectly, speak, dress, eat, or do anything with the word perfect. The idea hit her as quickly as a train, so she just stood there, waiting with Joey as the crowds pushed by them, never once getting in their way or stepping between theme.

"Are you going to hurt me?" Joey asked.

She wondered why she would but then she remembered how she hit Kaiba. He had deserved that though. Joey was annoying but he hadn't done anything that deserved being hit for. However, Joey had seen her hit him. A lot of people probably saw her hit Kaiba. It was going to be in the paper tomorrow, but then the media would leave her alone. Honestly, she didn't care. Scandals were what sold papers, not good charity, sweet acts of kindness. People loved hearing how in the news they would say 'good morning/afternoon/evening' and then saying why it wasn't because it meant that at least they weren't suffering like the person in the news, they could say at least 'I'm better off than that guy' is or even was in the case of murders. But it only spread darkness and corruption in the hearts of men.

"No."

"Then yes," Joey confirmed, "I'm definitely asking you out. But only as friends…"

She nodded. She could deal with that.

* * *

><p><strong>I hate how this ended. Oh, well... It's up now... Thanks for reading!<strong>


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